April 17, 2019

BDNF and COMT Alleles Associated With Psychiatric Symptoms in Refractory Epilepsy

A retrospective, cross-sectional study has found that both BDNF and COMT may be associated with the pathophysiology of psychiatric comorbidities in patients with epilepsy. Findings from this study were published in Epilepsy Behavior.

A total of 148 adult patients with refractory epilepsy from the Cleveland Clinic Epilepsy Center were administered self-reported assessments of mood, anxiety, and/or personality/psychopathology.

Only patients who completed these assessments and have genotyping results for APOE, BDNF, or COMT were included in the final analysis. The researchers investigated whether the presence of APOE4, BDNF Val66Met, or COMT Val158Met were associated with increases in psychiatric symptomatology.

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